March 21st - 25th 2011, Psychiatric Hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich

Welcome!

We are pleased to invite you to the 16th World Congress of the WADP and the 29th International Symposium of the German Academy of Psychoanalysis (DAP e.V.).

Developed by Günter Ammon and emphasized in the work of the famous Russian physician and scientist Vladimir Bekhterev, the explicitly holistic and multidimensional approach to understanding both the healthy and unhealthy human personality recognizes that the optimal modern treatment of mental disorders requires the broad interaction and inclusion of all the human sciences. This concept is the foundation of the WADP. Specifically, it means combining biological, psychotherapeutic, and psychosocial expertise into a holistic complex of biopsychological treatment and research approaches.

The previous WADP congress, held in St. Petersburg, coincided with the centennial of the renowned St. Petersburg Bekhterev Psychoneurological Research Institute– recognized as scientific and training institute by the World Health Organization and an affiliated member of the WPA. The congress was notable for its presentations of impressive and representative new data on the modern achievements in the fields of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, neuromorphology sciences,socialand psychopharmacotherapy. They clearly showed how rapidly the golden standards of treatment are changing for a variety of mental disorders, largely through the intense collaboration of physicians and clinical psychologists.

As at previous WADP proceedings, presentations from different fields of psychiatry, medical psychology, and psychoanalysis will be delivered at the forthcoming 16th congress of the WADP as well. The focus, however, will be on personality identity, a deep, but hitherto insufficiently discussed, problem in dynamic psychiatry. It is also a very pressing one, considering that it is the basic issue in the psychotherapy of mental disorders such as schizophrenia, affective disorders, personality disorders, psychosomatic diseases, and substance abuse disorders. Objective scientific ways to investigate the broad and varied inter- and intrapsychic field of identity are still being sought, especially for specific disorders. The results that emerges from the congress will significantly influence the future development of dynamic psychiatry.

The success and friendly collaborative atmosphere of the congress in St. Petersburg last year give us confidence in looking forward to this next important scientific gathering.

Sincerely, Professor N. G. Neznanov President of the WADP



The conference will address the fundamental issue of identity in its interpersonal context. In times of globalization and worldwide migration, with the appurtenant societal challenges and social problems, it would seem that the successful development of an identity is facing ever-increasing difficulties. At the international level, the WPA under its president Mezzich has developed the program „Psychiatry for the Person“, which focuses on the patient as a human being, taking account of peopleís needs while also fostering their inherent possibilities in treating them.

Dynamic psychiatry as developed by Günter Ammon integrates this approach to treatment since 40 years. It sees the person in his or her holistic identity, always embedded in interpersonal networks and processes of exchange. The basis on which so-called identity disorders are developed are pre-oedipal disturbances and disruptions occurring while attachments and relationships are formed. Attribution of values and assignment of importance find their way into the unconscious and thus mark a personís identity. The question is to what extent a person meets with attention – is he or she taken seriously in their needs and feelings, is the understanding conveyed that their life has a sense to it? In this sense, identity will be able to develop in a healthy, i.e. constructive way, but may also take a turn towards illness, and thus develop in a destructive or deficient manner. Identity-therapy needs to take place in an interpersonal, „social energetic“ field (Günter Ammon). Dynamic psychiatry offers a broad range of verbal and creativizing, psycho-therapeutic treatment methods that will promote and foster identity.

The congress will address the opportunities and limits for the successful development of an identity. The role that interpersonal, group dynamic, cultural, political and societal influences play in this regard will be discussed. The presentations will be informed by the most recent findings in the fields of brain sciences, as well as research into trauma disorders and the science of attachment. Likewise, research done in the field of resource science, resilience science and pharmacological science will be reflected. May this congress join its precursor conferences in enabling a fruitful exchange between scientists from the fields of medicine, psychiatry, psychology, psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, may it promote interdisciplinary research with sociology, philosophy, didactics and cultural anthropology and many other fields, and may it allow us all to establish a discourse of the subject that transcends the different cultures, societies and scientific fields! We wish to once again thank the international organizations WPA, WASP, World Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation for their support, and extend our thanks in particular to the Ludwig-Maximilian- University of Munich for the excellent cooperation.

Maria Ammon President DAP